The Importance of an Otherwise Mundane Discovery Order to the Preservation of Democracy

I believe that in order to combat the surge of authoritarianism and chaos that will come with Trump’s impending presidency, it is essential for long-established democratic institutions to continue to function properly.   Take, for example, this recent decision in Mr. Trump’s suit against a tenant who withdrew from its restaurant lease with Trump’s new D.C. hotel.   If it were not for the parties involved, this would be a routine commercial lease dispute not unlike the thousands pending in civil courts all over the country.  And the discovery dispute at issue, i.e., whether to limit a deposition under the applicable rules of civil procedure, is the kind that lawyers litigate and judges decide all the time.   Here, the system did what it is designed to do.  And the judge did what she swore to do: review the facts and the arguments from counsel, faithfully apply the law, and decide the issue.   In normal times, nobody except the parties would care that a trial judge sitting in D.C. ruled on a routine discovery matter.  But these are not normal times, and the ability of the system to continue to function in routine and even boring ways seems heroic to me.

Read this.